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Andraste the Death Dealer
Andraste the Death Dealer is the goddess of war. She is a strategic being who wavers between filled with a passionate rage and being cruelly and coldly calculating. She favors warriors to really everyone else, but she can appreciate the power and necessity of other occupations. |image = picture |image-size = |image-caption = Portrayed by: Gal Gadot |Created By= Eliza |status= Alive |Gender= Female |Age= 4000 |Species= Goddess |Position= The Death Dealer |affiliation = The Pantheon|species = Goddess}}Overall, she is not a friendly creature, but a general does not have to be. She respects those who show that they are smart fighters more than others, and tends to look down upon pacifism as willful ignorance and a failure to be willing to do what is necessary. Powers Because she can do all the shits. Paste from application here? Andraste is stronger, faster, tougher. She is war. As War, Andraste naturally is able to fight using any weapon (or lack thereof), whether it is intended as a weapon or not. She has an instinct for how to use something as a weapon (and tends to walk into any given space with immediate calculations of its strategic points, its possible weapons and defenses, weak points, threats, etc.) as well as for how to fight with someone, regardless her familiarity with them. She calculates someone’s weaknesses and strengths so quickly in a fight that the human mind often cannot follow. She has not only created every single fighting style known in Ga’Leah, but has also become an expert in it; any fighting style foreign to her as a result of its creation in Allutheria is still one she could easily learn by observing someone using it. Not only does she learn quickly, she fights astoundingly quickly. She is still coming up with tricks and movements, and still creating new styles of fighting in Ga’Leah as well—she is creative in this and is always ready to bring about new uses for old (or new) toys. Although she herself has not created weapons, she has mastered them all, and sometimes works with the Living Flame to create new ones. Similarly, she is a master/expert of all forms of shields and armors as well as having gained a mastery of combat and fighting and arguing with one, a few, or many people. However, while she may know the fighting potential of anything and anyone, she is unable to determine their weaknesses and abilities otherwise—she would not, for example, know how to play an instrument (except a drum to keep soldiers marching to a beat) or whether someone was a good dancer without studying the subject (and she hasn’t). She is a strategist however, and tends to approach many situations in a win-lose mentality, which is often inappropriate when dealing with people. The shield maiden. Natural things, human weapons, fae weapons, and the like cannot break the goddess’s skin. They will not scratch her or make her bleed. This does not mean that she is immune to death, naturally, but simply that it is not easy to kill her. She has two distinct weaknesses: 1) Divine weapons can still break her skin. Weapons blessed or created by the other gods are as weapons to a normal person and pose an equal threat to her. 2) There are many ways to kill/hurt someone without breaking the skin; although her bones are stronger than that of the average person (significantly so), and she herself is significantly stronger than most, her bones can be broken. Her organs can be ravaged. She can be poisoned. She can be crushed or, hypothetically, torn in two. The tattoos are magic. Andraste’s skin is covered in tattoos as black as her eyes turn when she uses her powers. These tattoos are almost constantly in motion, swirling and swimming and swinging across her skin in a variety of ways. The tattoos are a variety of images—some are intricate knots and swirls, others are animals or people, yet others are images of weapons, armor, and other warlike aspects. Some of the tattoos are the souls of the Wild Hunt members. Only she is able to pull these off her skin and release the souls into the aether for the Soul Reaper or the Wild Hunt to collect — no one else can reclaim the souls. If she were to die, the souls would be released to their owners. These tattoos still have movement, but they do not move away from the locations on her body in the same way the others do. Her other tattoos are the shadows of her weapons—these she can pull from her skin to essentially summon any weapon, shield, or piece of armor she chooses for her own use. No one else is able to use these tools, as they are manifestations of her power and are unable to leave her. Even the arrows she shoots at others, once no longer in living flesh, will return to her. Attempts to remove the arrows will cause them to disappear, tearing through the flesh as if they had been pulled out and leaving the wounds in their wake. Some of the tattoos have been blessed by Sage with poisonous properties—his blessing extends so far as to protect her from that poison while it is in her skin, but once she pulls it free and onto the coating for a weapon, she is no longer immune to it. Fight, fight, fight! From her birth/creation, Andraste has had an aura of discord about her. She does not so much make people angry as she makes them inclined to fight—to argue—to disagree. Simply being around her can make people savage, vicious, and lash out at those around them. She thrives on this conflict and can actually gain power from it, though this effect is mild. She has significant control over this ability, however, and is able to call it in and prevent it from causing massive fights. Often, people are nonetheless inclined to argue, but these tend to be smaller spats. People who are disciplined in terms of their behaviors and emotions are less likely to exhibit these behaviors, but are often nonetheless not immune to the desire to argue/fight. Battle scars are signs of honor. When it comes to wounds, Andraste has two powers that are part of one. These powers apply only to wounds obtained in battle of some sort, oft by weapons (but not necessarily) and must at least in part include the opening of skin. When Andraste wishes, she is able to heal these wounds in warriors she deems deserving. She must touch these warriors, and her healing leaves behind a black-lined scar that will never fade away. She can heal the gaping wounds of a lost limb (but not regrow the limb), and she can stop infection from spreading from an open wound, but she has no ability when it comes to poisons or wounds not endured in a fight. The process is often unpleasant (read: painful) for the person being healed, and can take a lot out of them (and, as of late due to the Blight, out of her). Spoiler alert: Andraste’s tattoos cover her scars successfully enough that the latter can’t be seen, and the scars she leaves on warriors look a lot like her tattoos. Additionally, because she must know what she is doing in order to heal warriors successfully, she has studied the human body in great detail and is incredibly familiar with its forms and its functions—there is very little she does not know about the body. However, when Andraste is feeling vicious rather than helpful, she can also open old war wounds. She must have prior knowledge of these wounds and they must have begun the healing process (whether through her or not is moot) for this power to work, but she can call these forth to cripple warriors against whom she fights. This is an area of effect ability, unlike the first, and one of her more terrifying when she uses it in enemy armies. However, as a result of the Blight, this ability has been weakened and the area of effect has shrunk significantly. The tells. Whenever Andraste uses a power that she must think to activate, her eyes go wholly black and her tattoos move in a more frenzied way. Her rage has the same tells—and her rage is not something she is often able to control. It floods her system, takes her over, and brings her to a bloodlust that is difficult to quench without killing a decent number of people or animals. Slaughter and torture are not beyond her, and as she is skilled in weapons and the body alike, she is good at both—making it quick, and drawing it out. The warrior spirit. When Andraste’s eyes go black, it is the warrior spirit spilling forth. She calls upon it in herself, but is also able to call upon it in others—when she does, others also end up with the black eyes. It is the manifestation of the warrior spirit, which not everyone has. Some are simply not warriors. Andraste finds this disappointing, but has accepted it. When she does call upon the warrior spirit, the warriors around her are able to fight beyond their normal limits. They begin to ignore their wounds, their pain, their exhaustion, and simply frenzy onward. However, because they are ignoring their limitations, they are much more likely to hurt themselves or die when the warrior spirit leaves them. The warrior spirit does not replace or fix wounds, however, and cannot prevent death. It simply makes it possible to keep fighting, to be fiercer and more dangerous. Due to the Blight, her area of effect has grown smaller, and it has become easier to push her off, if one is sufficiently magically talented or mentally disciplined. She does, however, have the choice of who receives the benefits of the warrior spirit. Rough around the edges. Andraste is not skilled when it comes to using a silk glove—she is very much a sledgehammer. If force can do a job, she is unlikely to use words. For that, she can be blind to social norms, often argues when peace would make a situation easier, and is so determined to be victorious that she can cause herself problems attempting to achieve that victory. Everything is a competition. Everything has rules that must be followed. She adheres to both of these beliefs very strictly and very seriously, and her unwillingness to budge on an agreement once it has been made can make her difficult to work with. She is able to lie only because of its strategic applications and plenty of practice—after all, war is on a “need to know” basis, and some people just don’t need to know the truth. Lies are useful tools to this goddess. Animals and their love-hate relationship with Andraste. Most animals are terrified of Andraste. They sense the danger and bloodlust in her and will not go near her (unless the Huntress has a say in it). For this reason, Andraste never rode a horse until she created the Knightmares—she didn’t see the need for a steed until she discovered the happy accident that, because the knightmares were her creation and her wrath, they were not afraid of her. They would fight at her side, and one or two of them could be wrestled into letting her ride them. All other animals run away from her without much hesitation, which can make hunting a bit difficult and has definitely contributed to her general lack of knowledge of animals (beyond how to kill them and make them edible, though she has no skill in cooking). She appreciates them, but she doesn’t deal much with them. Holes in her knowledge. Because of her focus on war and fighting and related items, there are significant holes in her knowledge due to a lack of effort. She knows little to nothing about aesthetics and the arts (though she has a natural talent for dancing, should she attempt it, due to its relation to fighting). Although she is learning about plants from her brother, she focuses on their deadly or healing properties and rarely to anything else—as such, she knows nothing about farming (beyond that it is important for feeding troops). She doesn’t tend to know much about magic beyond its applications for warfare (illusory, offensive, and defensive magics are her primary areas of expertise, and she knows a bit about other forms but not much), and doesn’t often spend much time thinking about it. She doesn’t know much about bureaucracy or the government beyond how the government may wage war or make peace, and she cares little about royal lineages unless people are fighting over the positions. History She chose war. How could she not with her rage? The Great War She kicked ass. Isn't that enough? The Birth of Mankind Yay more meat shields. The Blight Then, everything changed, when the fire nation attacked. Personality Rough around the edges, but she really does care. Just ask her son. Relationships With the people who do important things in her life. Do I need anything else on this?